please help with landscape fabric

Hi...I am starting some flower beds at my foundation. We have just put in about 5 inches of a garden mix top soil and are ready to plant. My hubby wants to put a landscape fabric down over the soil and cut holes for putting in our plants. Then after planting, dress it with mulch. Is this a good thing to do? I was just thinking that it would make it hard for plants to reseed themselves or for things like lilies to expand eventually.

The issue of landscape fabric comes up a lot here. Some people like it and swear by it, others hate it.

If you're just going to put in permanent plants, and never change them out, then it would probably be ok. However, if you are going to be planting seasonal color and/or changing the look of your planting area, then it's going to be a hassle as you'll constantly be having to cut holes in it to plant new things.

Weeds CAN find their way through the stuff, so if you know this ahead of time don't be surprised.

In addition, seeds of weeds and desirable plants can and will sprout and root THROUGH this fabric...then when you go to pull them out, it lifts up the fabric.

Putting a top dressing over it will actually create an environment for things to sprout in as the dressing decomposes. Animals digging around in it will also cause it to lift up and bunch up...then you've got that issue to deal with.

If you're top dressing the area, that should be enough to deter weeds, so you won't really need the fabric.

I personally think it's a wate of time and money to use the fabric unless you use it under a paving material. like bricks. I've used it as a weed barrier under bricks laid in sand and it works well...but other than that IMHO I thinks it;s useless. (Just my opinion.)

I started out using weed barrier fabric and I can tell you that it is more trouble than it is worth.
Bermuda will grow through it from top or bottom, same goes for weeds and the roots of your plants. Then when you try to pull the offenders, the whole stinkin mess gets ripped up and has to be redone.
My suggestion is thick layers of wetted newspapers covering the soil, then mulch or decorative covering on top of that. Not only will the newspapers decompose over time and add nutrients to the soil, but they will block the weeds and the grass. The drawback is that they are only good for about a year. But then after a year, you may have successfully killed everything under the newspaper so that no more is needed--the only exception being Bermuda as it is the spawn of Satan and will continue to challenge you through the newspaper for years to come. Best solution against bermuda is remove it before you ever get started, and remove it completely.
One decent use of landscape fabric is to line the bottom of pots so that the soil does not wash out the holes. Other than that, it is not worth having.

The planters in front of our local library used to have one tree each, with landscape fabric covered by gravel on the ground.

In a few years, the gravel was shifted around enough that bits of the fabric were showing. Leaves from the trees fell on the gravel and were impossible to rake up without messing up the gravel more. Then all kinds of weeds started growing in the mixture of decaying leaves and gravel ON TOP of the landscape fabric.

I think the concept of landscape fabric sounds great. Supposedly helps with weeds, but unfortunately there is no great surefire way to get rid of them. I think if anyone ever discovered a way they would be very rich and famous, and thanked by many gardeners forever....

I totally agree with these people that, at best, it's more trouble than it's worth, and it CAN be a big ol' mess - as described variously above. And if the mulch moves and it shows, it looks tacky.

If you put a nice, thick layer of mulch on top, you will NOT have many weeds anyway - just pinch or pull out the occasional interloper.

I personally like it for most situations.
I have some gardens with it and some without.
Of course some weeds do still get through but for me personally i would say it cut my weeding time by about 75%. Nothing is 100%.
I started all of the holes in the fabric smaller, then about 3 or 4 times during the season we went around and pushed aside the mulch and cut the holes larger with a razor, it literally only took a minute per plant.
I have a few dozen lillies and that was the only plant that gave me a hard time because it did not come up in the same place as the year before, they probley would have died if we didnt notice and cut away the fabric, so if you do decide to use fabric leav a extra large hole around lillies, and of course dont use around anything that creeps along the ground.
Ultimately i would love to have a garden that is fully grown and chokes out all the weeds - but for now most of my planting are on their second and third years (only moved here 3 years ago). I am glad I started with the fabric.
On the other hand i have a hill in front of my house where the previous owners put down fabric then mulch ,there is about 4" of mulch with 2 or 3" of dirt under that - probley from all of the leaves that fall fom 3 huge trees onto that just composted over the years - well basicly its a complete mess - Like someone else mentioned - hundreds of weeds just grow right on top of the fabric. Using fabric under where trees are going to drop leaves is just useless.

Thank you everyone for your comments.....

From what I see here, I think I would rather not use it, but I don't know if I can talk my hubby out of using it. He is dead set on it right now. I just think it sounds like a lot more trouble than its worth.

What does landscape fabric feel like? My hubby got our stuff from work for free, (commercial construction), and this stuff is like woven tarp material. It looks to me like water just sits on top and doesn't soak through. Does it normally take a while for water to go through landscape fabric, or is the stuff we have more like plastic sheeting? I don't want to use the wrong stuff and just end up killing our plants.

Do you have a manufacturer's name for the fabric?

It could be for use under gravel paths rather than around plants, if it is impermeable.

If it's the right kind of fabric then water ought to go right through it. If it's completely impermeable I probably wouldn't use it under paths either, even there it's best if water can drain through rather than running off.